


The Consulting Merman.

by audreyneedsacase



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid, Let's Write Sherlock, M/M, Merlock, mer!Sherlock
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-03 03:03:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1064982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audreyneedsacase/pseuds/audreyneedsacase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock, a merman from the underwater kingdom of Crementa, meets the human John as a child. He falls in love with the human world, with its adventure and puzzles (and John). But when he makes a deal with the sordid Moriarty to become a human, things go awry and Sherlock realises that the human world is not exactly what he had bargained for.</p>
<p>~WIP for the time being~</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Consulting Merman.

**Author's Note:**

> ~this will definitely be a WIP for a while, and not be updated in the immediate future. Probably not until mid-December. Finals/the holiday season (where I'll be working retail and travelling for family reunions) are coming up, and I'm also spending a lot of time PA'ing on a friend's short film set, as well as revising a short story and getting it ready for submitting it to some literary journals (!!!!!). I just needed the first chapter up before the deadline of Let's Write Sherlock, (along those lines, excuse the fact that this needs to be heavily edited still, that will be coming up soon.)
> 
> tl;dr: if you're looking for something you don't have to wait for, this probably isn't it. But, regardless, if you ARE going to read it, then I thank you from the depths of the sea of my soul and basically you are just a perfect, wonderful person. AH, nope. No thinking otherwise. It's a fact. I have spoken.

The guards swam hungrily back and forth near the water's surface, just waiting for someone to try to breach their watch and pass them. They carried their standard issue weapons and camouflage (courtesy of the ever-overbearing King) to stop anyone from ever glimpsing the world above.

But twelve-year-old Sherlock was going to try - no, succeed - to cleverly evade the guard and see above the water for himself.

From his hiding spot behind a helpfully large soft coral, he could see the weak spot in the line of guards - the young officer on the farthest side, nearest to the gully's ridge, was on the verge of falling asleep. Sherlock scoffed at the incompetence of the King's 'finest' subjects. This wasn't even going to be a challenge!

Sherlock removed himself from his position and sunk to be far below the guards. He can hear them speaking, in his head:

_Pregnant, again?_ the bearded one said. His red-orange tail flapped furiously at all times, working hard to keep his fat body from sinking.

The other, only slightly younger and less ugly and fat, replied, _Yeah, that'll be four!_

_Poseidon Almighty, how do you afford all those mouths to feed?!_

The father laughed, _That's the problem, I can't. The maid'll have to stop being lazy and treading water and get an actual job!_ The two laughed, their inane mirth echoing in Sherlock's head. He rolled his eyes and continued swimming.

Deep below the surface now, and well out of the guards' sight, Sherlock looked for some sort of opening in the gully. He wondered if there might be a point of entry somewhere along the seabed, but he knew that the flatfish that resided at the bottom would alert the guards; apparently, using one - just one! - for experiment was cause for the entire species to hate him. So, Sherlock looked for any other way.

_Ey!_ he heard. Damn, he was caught. _You! You're not supposed to be here!_

The less fat, but putridly plaice-coloured one swam towards Sherlock, B _y order of the King, you are to leave the proximity of the surface immediately!_ Sherlock started to swim away - quickly. The guard chased him, much faster than Sherlock had anticipated. His hope in the guard was restored (well, just a bit. They still were way too idiotic to be in public, protecting the city).

Eyeing a small crevice around a corner of the gully, Sherlock rapidly inserted himself inside. His small, thin frame made this a perfect spot to hide from the approaching guard. He tried to remain as still as possible, only moving his tail minimally to remain in place, but nothing more. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the flash of the brown tail of the guard swim past. He waited only a few moments more, just to make sure that the guard had left, and then proceeded to get out -

He was stuck. There apparently hadn't been enough room for him here, and now he was stuck in the small crevice, and with barely any room to move out into the open water. He tried to wriggle free, to move side to side to get some sort of movement to release him and get him to go towards freedom, but instead, the movements slid him more into the crevice. Wait, more into the crevice? Sherlock experimented and moved that way. The crevice was widening, and Sherlock - ever so dangerously curious - decided to go further into it.

Algae covered the walls of the gully's opening, so much so that it sometimes blocked Sherlock's way into the deep gap. So no one must have gone this way for quite some time. He pulled at the plant to make himself more of an opening to slither through.

The merman swam through the ever-widening fissure, (big enough now that it was easy for him to pass through) pitch black and silent as it was. Sherlock found himself swimming farther than he had expected the crevice to reach, yet still not reaching the end. He started to feel a touch of claustrophobia but also a strong sense of inquisitiveness and excitement. What he had originally thought was just a small crack in the side of the gully, was actually more along the lines of an underwater corridor, and Sherlock was determined to find out what was on the other side. And, after what seemed like swimming for an inordinately long time, Sherlock began to see a light near his destination. He started to swim faster.

He finally reached the end of the tunnel. He swam out into the open water that was on the opposite side as his starting point. He was thoroughly surprised by the lack of guards here. Just another example of their ineptitude, Sherlock reasoned. Remembering the reason for his journey, he seized the opportunity to rise towards the surface.

Just before breaking through, he hesitated. Going above the surface (except for the King-approved areas for oxygen intake) was highly forbidden. Merchildren were taught even in their childhood games to avoid the creatures that lived above them at all costs. Too many merfolk had died because of these creatures in the past. And then, of course, there was the fact that too much oxygen could kill. A merperson had to remain mostly in the water at all times, lest they die (aquadepravation was a common form of death penalty for the criminals that the King executed).

Regardless, Sherlock felt himself drawn to the surface, to see the dangerous world that he had only heard about in his studies. He closed his eyes, and surged upward out of the water, expecting something to be there, waiting to kill him -

\- only to find nothing. There was no danger immediately present, at least not that Sherlock could see. He was mildly disappointed. And cold. The wind bit at his water-soaked skin like the nips of shad fish. He wrapped his hands around his shivering arms. Thinking more about it, he sunk lower into the slightly warmer water, leaving only the top of his head and eyes bobbing out of the ocean.

He glanced around himself. Just open water. Not even anything interesting, except, oh! Behind him - land! The sea bed rose up to the dry sand in front of him, only fifty or so metres away. A house - with a vastly different structure and architectural design than the homes in Crementa - sat not too far away from the edge of the water, upon a hill, to protect itself from the waves. And there, in the waves where the ocean meets the land, was a creature.

Sherlock immediately sank down into water, hiding himself in the blue ocean, involuntary shock coursing through him. His heartbeat had quickened and his survival instincts were urging him to flee. Nevertheless, he forced himself to calm down, to regain his confidence, and slowly rise again.

The creature was still in the same position as before - staying still as the waves lapped around it. Sherlock knew what the creature was - a human. In some ways, they were similar to merpeople (Sherlock noted that indeed this creature looked similar to him, same basic structure, albeit for different appendages and no tail) except much more bloodthirsty. But this human didn't look like he wanted to hurt anything, he looked... sad?

Without realising it, Sherlock moved closer to the human. His curiosity overpowered any sort of self-preservation techniques he had, as he approached the creature. His hair was a yellowish colour - similar to that of the sunlight in the water during daylight hours. His skin was darker than that of Sherlock's or any merperson's for that matter. He reminded Sherlock of the sand. Brown. Uninteresting.

But also somehow so miraculous and beautiful.

Sherlock finally realised his new location - now only a stone's throw away from the human - and started to retreat, when he heard something. "Oi!"

Sherlock froze in place. He had read that pretty, exotic things looked so captivating to trick their prey into swimming into their trap. Despite this knowledge, Sherlock found it difficult to look away and leave the human, who was still speaking. To him?

"Come here!" The human called. He certainly didn't _seem_ dangerous, with his radiant face, and his small body. A child human, then. He got taller - standing, they stand with their different appendages -and gestured towards Sherlock. "Are you one of the McDonnell boys?"

Sherlock found himself torn between swimming far away from the human, but also mesmerised by its voice. Merpeople had very little use for vocal activity; their communication consisted of gestures and through their minds. Using the vocal chords was reserved mostly for above water speech only. Rare as it was, few remained that could actually perform the skill - including Sherlock (is there anything Sherlock didn't know how to do?)

The human's voice was not like any merperson's voice, which were very disjointed and unnatural. The creature's voice was warm and kind sounding, and Sherlock found himself irrationally mystified by it, its exoticism and newness.

Entranced, Sherlock swam even closer to the human, the danger still there, but overpowered by a single thought: _what is this what is this what is this._

His breathing was laboured (breathing oxygen that was not in the water was much more difficult than Sherlock was used to) and adrenalin was coursing through him, from his fingers down to his fins.

"Ah, there you are. Where did you come from, anyway? I didn't see you until you popped up all of a sudden." The human sniffed. "This is a private beach, you know."

Sherlock could only stare in shock. What was he to do? Answer? This was surely a trap, but he found it hard to care.

The human's expression changed - how many faces they had! It was fascinating. Sherlock wondered how many it could do. Its eyebrows were drawn together, and it moved to be more at Sherlock's level. "Hey, kid, are you okay? You're not in trouble, or anything. I don't think we've met, I'm John. I live up there," he pointed to the house up the hill.

With a surprising bout of confidence (or foolish pride) the merman spoke. "My name is... Sherlock." He hoped his voice was not too shaky.

John (john john john - it sounded so strange and foreign in Sherlock's ears) made another face. "Sherlock? Hmm. Haven't heard that one before." He laughed. Oh! Laughter up here sounded different as well. Much fuller. Sherlock decided that he liked it. "So do you live down the road? Didn't you just move in?" The human continued.

Sherlock didn't know how to answer. The terminology was unknown to him. "No," he replied, unsure.

"Oh, okay, then where do you live? You should probably get out and go home - it's getting dark. And cold." And it was, but Sherlock hadn't noticed it. The air above the water was causing Sherlock to shake slightly. John did the eyebrow thing again. Was it concern? Or malevolence? "Here, let me help you out. Do you have a towel?"

Here it was - John was going to kill him! Luring Sherlock out of the safety of the ocean with the promise of warmth and care.

"Are you all right? You're looking really pale..." John started to wade into the water, and Sherlock took great efforts to stay away from him. "Oh, my God, you could be getting hypothermia. Here, come here, I'll help you."

John reached out a hand towards Sherlock. His dark sea blue eyes captivated the merman and every though he knew he should, Sherlock wasn't moving. He was frozen in place, and he was going to die. He closed his eyes, trying to block the pain that was inevitably going to happen.

A warm (dry) hand wrapped around Sherlock's arm. It was unlike anything he has ever felt before. It radiated through him, made him lightheaded. He gasped at the contact. "Wow, you're really cold. And clammy. And.... slimy? What...?" And all of a sudden, Sherlock came back to his senses. He shook his head, realising his mistake, and dove back under the water, leaving John behind.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so yeah, this isn't that good and it's really abrupt, BUT! I promise there will be more fleshing out and chapters soon, or as soon as possible. So, ah, I guess just think of this as a preview or something? Yeah.


End file.
